Overseal's best-known businessman is forking out thousands of pounds from his own pocket to save a closure-threatened village church left "hanging on by a shoestring" with dwindling congregations.

Multi-millionaire car dealer Tom Hartley is paying for St Matthew's Church to upgrade its heating as well as provide running water for the first time in 20 years to the building in Woodville Road, Overseal.

Currently worshippers have to gather in an annex in the winter months because the church cannot afford to heat the main building.

But Mr Hartley has stepped in to ease the crisis - and also hopes that his online JustGiving website will raise a further £25,000 to cater for the church’s expenses to keep the 178-year-old building open.

Church warden Gill Edwards with Tom Hartley who is raising money to save St Matthew's

Car dealer Mr Hartley has bought and sold luxury and performance cars including Rolls-Royces, Aston Martins, Lamborghinis and Bugattis in the village for almost four decades. He said he was left concerned following the christening of his granddaughter Isla in the church earlier this month.

He said: "When I came here I said how beautiful a church it was to church warden Gill Edwards. She made it clear they were struggling. Attendance dropped to about 15 people each Sunday. I asked them why this was and they said it was very cold in here, and they had no running water.

"Gill seemed to think eventually it would disintegrate to the stage where the doors would be closed."

Mr Hartley, whose supercar business caters for car fans across the world, decided to fund the heating of the church and install running water as a thank-you to his home village.

St Matthew's Church is under threat.

He said: "I am quite concerned and showed interest immediately. I suggested to them getting running water and I promised them I will help. Within a week I have arranged for them to have a water supply put in here. That makes it easier for them to do what they want to do from this building rather than making a jaunt outside the building and carrying the water back inside.

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"I have also had a survey done about the heating so it is a great start.

"As a local businessman I have three businesses in the village, mainly cars, and have been here for 37 years and a lot of people say I put Overseal on the map. When you think of supercars globally everyone thinks of Overseal. I want to give something back to the village. It is just a gesture."

Tom Hartley is paying for the heating and water supply

Mr Hartley, who lives in the village and runs the business from a 40-acre estate, returned to the church for the Sunday service the following week.He said: "What I saw is not what I wanted to see. I took a photograph of 15 people sitting round a table. They were not even in the church, they were in the annex next to the church.

"I don’t profess to be the most religious person in the world but for someone who really wants to come to the church, they have this coldness. It needs revitalising to say this is what Overseal church is all about.

"I wouldn’t want to go to an annex for a Sunday church gathering when I have a church like this."

While the overall cost of the immediate work has not yet been calculated, Mr Hartley believes it will run into the thousands which he will donate from his own pocket.

He is starting his fund-raising mission with a charity concert at the church on March 11, starring gospel singer Monica Dunbar.

The 178-year-old building is struggling to fund expenses

He said: "It will give me great satisfaction when I can come here on March 11 to see this church full which I do not believe has been the case for some years. You need to let local people understand what is happening and so everyone can pull together."

Church warden Mrs Edwards said the Anglican and Methodist church faced many costs, including around £14,000 a year in parochial expenses to the clergy. It is paid in order to enable the clergy member to exercise their ministry without the need to take another job in order to earn their living.

As well as running its heating and water, the church faces a £1,500 payment a year for insurance as well as costs to repair its leaky roof and run its electricity.

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She said: "Heating is the thing. You cannot use the church so much in winter because it is expensive to heat and we lose heat out of the roof a lot so we have to put the heating on hours beforehand to get any sort of heat.

"Having running water will make it easier so you do not have to carry water from the community centre to church. It can be used for hospitality drinks. Turning on a tap would be great. We have not had running water in the church for more than 20 years since the water was cut off when we took out the old lead piping."

The church funds its expenses through its Sunday services and concerts.

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Mrs Edwards said: "We shoot ourselves in the foot because you have to put the heating on and it is expensive."

She added: "Tom very kindly said he would try to assist us with fund-raising. If it all works out it will be absolutely ground-breaking because, without, the church will eventually grind to a halt and have to close.

Photograph taken by Tom Hartley shows St Matthew's Church service held in an annex as the main church building is too cold (Image: Tom Hartley)

"We have been hanging on by a shoestring for quite a few years but it is getting quite desperate now."